to stand against the darkness
by Darkest Absol
Summary: As it turns out, trying to become a hero is a lot harder than it seems. Crossover between Detective Conan and My Hero Academia. (Formerly posted under the title 'in a world where a detective might not be enough'.)
1. not a failure

Her Quirk manifested at the age of four, only becoming apparent when a friend tried to show her something on the TV only for the said TV to quit working when she touched it. Of course, her accidentally shocking everyone who so much as grazed her afterwards didn't help either, leading to one very confused and unsettled Masumi Sera getting shoved out the door with a wooden broom when Shuukichi finally came to get her.

After that it was a whirlwind of apologies for the broken TV and tests just to figure out the obvious: Masumi had inherited her father's Electric Charge Quirk, much like Shuukichi himself had. The good news from this was now she could learn to use it properly instead of randomly draining every electric device she came across. The bad news however, was that only Shuukichi could really do anything when Masumi had built up too much charge, and until she got things under control people were generally a bit wary of letting her hang around too long.

Of course, opinions changed once she did get it under control. Suddenly Masumi went from being a danger to electronics and people to someone who could be a great hero one day, someone with a rare Quirk who could potentially put it to use, unlike her shogi focused brother. And no one would let go of that fact, all through elementary and middle school. No one would let it go, leaving her incredibly worried about what might happen if she failed, if she failed to meet all those expectations. And her learning Jeet Kune Do from her distant eldest brother didn't help much either, as that just sent the message that she was versatile, could handle anything if she became a hero.

And so in spite of her mother's initial plans to move to Britain, Masumi decided to not just apparently run away and instead applied for UA High at the very first opportunity. She wasn't going to run away, wasn't going to become a failure, was determined to live up to the expectations placed on her by pretty much everyone around her. (Then again, this came as no surprise to anyone who knew what she was like. Masumi had become quite protective of those around her over the years, so maybe it was for the best that she was trying to attend the best school for heroics around, so that she'd be better prepared in the future.)

Eventually the day of the entrance exam came, and Masumi went in trying her best to look like she was completely confident in her own skills. She was going to do this, and she was going to succeed no matter what. She was not a failure.

* * *

Note: This won't be Masumi-centric, I will give focus to other characters.

Quirks in this chapter:  
Electric Charge: User can store electricity from surroundings and then discharge it later at will. Stored electricity must be discharged directly into some sort of object at some point and cannot be discharged into the air. Too much stored electricity can cause the user to involuntarily discharge into anyone or anything that they make contact with, and in extreme cases even muscle spasms in the user.  
Known users: Tsutomu Akai (deceased), Shuukichi Haneda, Masumi Sera


	2. entrance exam day

**Comments**

 **Friendshipper:** Yup! I wanted to give Masumi something in common with 'Kichi, given how much inspiration she takes from Shuuichi in canon. Then again, I'm a sucker for family interactions in general, too, so.

 **lilacprimekitty:** Nice to hear that! Sadly, this fic isn't completely Masumi-centric, but she is present so I hope you'll like it anyways.

* * *

 **Ran's POV**

This was it. Ran had finally reached practical portion of the entrance exam, and she couldn't be more stressed. She would have loved to have Sonoko and Shinichi alongside her for this, but Sonoko was doing the Department of Management's version of the exam, and Shinichi was unable to participate due to an incident just ten months ago. Well, he wouldn't have anyways, due to his insistence on being a detective rather than a hero, but he wouldn't even be going to high school now. Not when he was stuck looking like a child due to some sort of drug.

Almost trembling at the memory, Ran recalled the ill fated trip to the amusement park, the murder on the roller coaster involving that gymnast girl with the flexibility Quirk, her taking the time to cry in the bathroom only to find Shinichi gone after she came out again, her asking around to track him down and eventually finding him sprawled out on the ground in pain as that poison did who knew what to his body, watching in horror as he literally shrunk in front of her in what looked like the most painful way possible, gathering up his tiny unconscious form to find help, and all the planning that had followed. Shinichi was now settled in as a distant relative who gone to stay with Ran and her father after a villain attack supposedly rendered his parents unable to watch him, though how he'd gotten away with renaming himself _Edogawa Conan_ of all things was beyond her. Ran herself would be going on to UA as planned, though now with the extra goal of trying to be a hero who could stop people like those who'd drugged Shinichi. It was all that could be done for now.

"What are you waiting for, go!" Snapping out of her memories at the sound of Present Mic's voice, Ran started as she realized that everyone was charging into the testing grounds and immediately ran after as fast as she could. On making it into the grounds, she darted for a nearby robot – a two pointer if she recalled the explanation right – and moved in to punch one of its legs. The blow sent the robot skittering backwards before it collapsed, giving Ran a moment to look around before running off to keep going.

 **Kaito's POV**

Hiding out in one of the buildings, Kaito watched with a grin as a one pointer robot drew nearer. Once it was close enough, he focused on a spot just outside the building and waited, grin only growing as an illusory human shape took form. Now came the hard part. Maintaining focus, Kaito gave the illusion the appearance of being a panicky examinee, allowing it to dart away a bit as the robot locked onto the new 'target'. Satisfied so far, he then slipped out the window, making sure to keep eye contact with the illusion as it danced around, drawing the robot onwards towards where Kaito knew he'd seen some stray robots earlier. Just a little further, around the corner, and...there!

Another robot had spotted the illusion person and had locked on, seemingly not noticing the first robot that was already chasing. Kaito's eyes narrowed as he focused on maintaining the illusion just a little longer, only letting it disappear just before the initial robot plowed into the other with a resounding crash.

"That was three points...plus the eleven points is fourteen..." One hand rose to Kaito's forehead as he fought off a developing headache so that he could keep going. He was doing this for his father, after all, and didn't want to fail now. Then again, all this had been Jii's idea after Kaito had found out about his father being murdered several years prior, meant to keep the young boy from following the dead man's footsteps as a thief. It had worked, but – no. Kaito didn't have time to think about this, he had to keep going. With that, he was off again, looking for more robots to pull his illusion trick on.

 **Heiji's POV**

This was all his father's fault. Kudou Shinichi disappeared ten months ago, and now Heiji's father refused to let him into crime scenes unless he either grew up or got some hero training so he could better defend himself. And impatient and stubborn as ever, Heiji had decided to go and get the best training possible, which meant getting into UA.

Even so, it was going to be an uphill battle for Heiji when all his Quirk did was give him nightmares about the future and all he had to fight the robots was a few shinai he had brought with him. Then again, it was something. Kazuha had decided to go with him, but he wasn't sure how she was holding out, given her aikido was likely useless now and she also had a non combat Quirk. Hopefully she was doing fine, but for now Heiji had to focus.

Whipping around to face a three pointer, Heiji clambered on top of some debris to get the height he needed to thrust the shinai into a gap in the robot's armour, prompting a shower of sparks as the bamboo sword found its mark. Withdrawing the weapon before it could be destroyed as the robot went down, Heiji surveyed the burns from the sparks on the sword before clambering on top of the newly fallen robot to survey his surroundings.

 **Kazuha's POV**

She was useless here, completely useless. Aikido wasn't enough to deal with the robots, and her Quirk was good for nothing but support, leaving Kazuha to make a mad scramble around the testing grounds while avoiding the robots. However, a noise of fear drew her attention, prompting her to make a detour around a pile of scrapped metal towards the source, which turned out to be another testee being cornered by a robot. Leaping forward, Kazuha fished a small marble out of her pocket and quickly charged it before passing it off to the scared girl as she positioned herself between them and the advancing robot. Watching as the robot raised a limb to attack, Kazuha braced for impact.

The blow never hit. Instead, a pale blue shield had sprung up from the charged marble, blocking the attack. Relief surged through Kazuha as she turned to face the still scared girl, though she still braced herself automatically every time the robot tried to attack. "Alright, ya need to get out of here, now! That'll only last ya five minutes!" Thankfully, the girl listened and fled, leaving Kazuha to try and lose the robot on her own.

 **Masumi's POV**

Leaping forward to tackle a two pointer's leg, Masumi clung on for dear life as she absorbed the electricity from the robot. Luckily it didn't take long for the robot to die from not having enough power, giving her the chance to let go before she took too much electricity.

"Now where can I discharge..." The number of robots seemed to be dropping, leaving Masumi to wonder if she'd have to discharge into the ground for lack of a new target to overload. However, her thoughts were cut off at the sound of something massive crashing around nearby, underscored by noises coming from what seemed to be a panicked crowd. It didn't take long to spot the source of the noise, but when the realization hit...

"Oh crap!" No amount of absorbing or discharging would take something that big down, and Masumi didn't want to stick around when the crowd was coming her way, so she turned and fled, just barely making sure to avoid shocking people along the way.

 **Ran's POV**

Time to run. The zero pointer was just too big, and Ran was just too tired to keep fighting, so she had little choice but to run with the crowd.

 **Kaito's POV**

Kaito's now massive headache was keeping him from focusing on much else besides staying upright and running from the zero pointer. Hopefully he had enough points – no, bad thought, that only caused a stab of pain that left him struggling to stay alert. He just had to keep moving.

 **Heiji's POV**

Both of the shinai he had brought in were now broken and useless, but even if they were still whole Heiji was sure they'd do nothing to a robot of that size. However, he had another concern: his dream from the night before. It had shown him someone getting crushed by the zero pointer, and now he was looking for whoever it was. Were they in a different testing ground – no, there they were, a girl pinned by rubble as the robot approached. Heiji had just about turned to try and pull the girl out, only for some boy at the tail end of the crowd to leap up and _punch the zero pointer_ in the...face? Honestly, Heiji wasn't sure, all that mattered was that it was downed and his nightmare wasn't going to come true, and oh. The boy was falling fast. Unable to do anything, he watched helplessly, hoping that the boy would do something to cushion the fall.

Or alternatively, the girl could do something. That worked too.

 **Kazuha's POV**

"Time's UP!"

Stumbling to a breathless halt, Kazuha looked up to see the zero pointer that had been chasing everyone just moments earlier was now rolling away. She'd ended up having to help out several others who were in over their heads on the exam, though it wasn't as if that helped when she hadn't been able to fight any robots for her own points. She had no chance of getting in. Though, she was still willing to support Heiji all the way if he got in.

"...How did tha' idiot do?" He was a bit of an idiot, insisting on doing this with nothing but _bamboo swords_. She'd just have to ask once they met up again outside their seperate testing grounds.

* * *

New Quirks in this chapter:

Double Strength: User is twice as strong as a normal person. However, user also tires relatively quickly when making heavy use of this Quirk.

Known Users: Kogoro Mouri, Ran Mouri

Illusion: User can create lifelike illusions. However, the user has to be able to see the illusion at all times and develops a massive headache with extensive usage.

Known users: Chikage Kuroba, Kaito Kuroba

Nightmare Vision: User sees visions of a potential future. However, it only happens when the user is asleep, the user doesn't control what they see, and the user only gets to see the worst outcome.

Known users: Shizuka Hattori, Heiji Hattori

Omamori: User can charge a small object to act as a protective ward. However, this effect only lasts five minutes before it wears off, and extensive usage causes the 'charge time' to become shorter each time.

Known users: Kazuha Toyama

Other Info: Hybrid between Kazuha's parent's Quirks. (Shield Generation [Generates a temporary shielding bubble, used by Ginshiro Toyama] and Energy Charge [Charges a person or item with energy at expense of user's own energy, used by Kazuha's mother.])

Thanks to olive-the-olive and our-happygirl500-fan over at Tumblr for giving me help with sorting out these quirks!


	3. one vs three (interlude 1)

_Location: Somewhere in the United States_

"Move it! Now!" The man took a swipe at the people blocking his path with a barb studded hand, not caring if someone got hurt. After all, he needed to get away with the loot from the jewellery store he had just robbed, and his buddy with the getaway vehicle was _nowhere to be found_. Had a hero already caught the guy?

Suddenly a beat up old sedan jumped the curb, blocking the sidewalk with ludicrous precision. The robber breathed a sigh of relief as he recognized the getaway car, only to double take at who was driving.

 _That was not his driver._

Okay, his driver did seem to be in the car too, but appeared to have been shoved into the passenger seat by whoever was now driving, and was frantically yanking on the car door in a mad bid to escape. Taken off guard by this turn of events, the robber turned and cut across the road to escape, practically playing Frogger with the traffic as he went. Darting to the safety of the sidewalk on the other side, he looked around and ran for it. Nothing was going to stop him from getting away, not some guy who somehow hijacked the getaway vehicle, not that random man who had stopped in the sidewalk ahead of hi-

The robber's heart suddenly seemed to skip several beats as the man ahead of him seemed to stare right into his soul. Limbs trembling in pure terror despite the fact that the man was only _staring_ at him, the robber tore off the way he came down the sidewalk, blindly fleeing in panic. He was so panicked in fact, that he didn't notice the sudden shadow overhead, and didn't notice the crowds scattering away from him until a woman literally _dropped down on top of him_ from the roof of a nearby building. Frantically struggling to no avail, he twisted his head up in time to see the carjacker from earlier dragging his partner along to presumably wait for police.

"You assholes..." The robber was interrupted by the woman lightly batting his head with one iridescent black wing. It didn't hurt, not really, but it did effectively shut him up until police finally arrived to retrieve the stolen goods and take him away.

* * *

These guys probably won't show up again, definitely not. Alright, they probably will. I just wanted practice writing a confrontation and decided to make the FBI group into a hero team. 

Quirks in this chapter: 

Barb Hand: User generates barbed wire like barbs from their hands.

Known Users: The robber from this chapter 

Auto Control: User can take complete control of a vehicle by touching it, but must know how the vehicle works before trying to control it.

Known Users: Andre Camel 

Evil Eye: User can terrify others by looking at them, but must maintain complete focus to do so and cannot be distracted in any way.

Known Users: Shuuichi Akai, Mary Sera 

Bird Wings: User has a pair of completely usable bird wings. However, the user can only maintain flight for a brief period due to the human body not normally being made for flight.

Known Users: Jodie Starling, Jodie's father (deceased)


	4. acceptance

**Kazuha's POV**

Hands still shaking from excitement fumbled the phone slightly as Kazuha waited for Heiji to pick up her call. Thankfully it didn't take long, and she was quick to scream into the phone before her friend could even finish greeting her.

"I got in! Heiji, I got in!" Her screaming was met with brief silence before a startled response could be heard, clearly not quite believing her.

"Wha- Kazuha, I thought the test only gave points for fighting the robots! How-" Heiji's questioning was cut off by more delighted yelling from Kazuha, clearly out of not believing her good fortune herself.

"Apparently the school gave out rescue points too and I got just enough to get in! I'm gonna be in class 1-B! Anyway, what about you? I know ya could at least fight the robots..." Kazuha finally paused to let Heiji speak, though she wasn't expecting the guy to remain _silent_.

"...Heiji? Ya got in, right?" It was another second before Heiji spoke, his tone making it clear something was up even before he dropped the news.

"Er, yeah, I got in too. It's just that I was placed in the General Department since I couldn't get enough points for Heroics..." This was enough to set Kazuha off again, this time in an effort to call Heiji out on his attitude.

"Ya idiot, that's still really good! Most applicants don't get in at all, so you getting into the General Department after fightin' those robots with your shinai and no combat Quirk is really impressive!" She huffed at the end of her brief rant before continuing on, this time slightly calmer. "I know you wanted to get into Heroics to keep your dad happy, but shouldn't this satisfy him, too?"

"I know, but he said I needed to either grow up and join the police force or get hero training and General isn't exactly a hero course!" Heiji's voice sounded annoyed, but if Kazuha had to guess she assumed that he had also taken a blow to his pride in not doing as well as he hoped. Not that that was an excuse for his complaints.

"Look, I don't know how you can be such an idiot, but can't ya pick stuff up from the other students if ya want to prove something to your dad? Aren't you supposed to be a detective?" That was enough to shut Heiji up, giving Kazuha the chance to launch into a discussion over where they were going to stay if they were attending school in another prefecture altogether.

 **Kaito's POV**

"Hey, Aoko!" Kaito was standing on his balcony, yelling across the space between his house and the house belonging to the Nakamoris. Curtains blocking his view into the neighbouring house rustled, and a familiar face popped into view as Aoko stepped onto her own balcony to yell back.

"What is it? Something importa-" Aoko fell silent as she noticed the envelope clutched in Kaito's hand, staring for a split second before turning to charge back into her house. It would be another couple minutes before she showed up at the door to the Kuroba household, slightly out of breath as though she'd rushed to get over there as fast as she could.

"It came, Kaito?" Kaito nodded while heading straight for a place to sit down, working to maintain his outward appearance of confidence that he'd get into the notoriously hard to get into school. After all, he didn't know what he'd do if he didn't get in. Despite his efforts though, he couldn't help but hesitate, worry building as he stared at the envelope.

"Bakaito, if you aren't going to open it then I'll do it!" Aoko lunged for the envelope, only for Kaito to hurriedly disappear it in one of his usual magic tricks. This didn't seem to impress Aoko though, as she just glared at Kaito in irritation while grabbing for the nearest object to throw – in this case, a stray TV remote.

"Ah ah ah, why don't you look again?" Thinking fast, Kaito quickly reappeared the envelope in his other hand, grinning slightly as he did so. "At both this and that remote." He used the envelope to gesture at the remote, which was building up a thin layer of geode-like blue crystal that Aoko quickly removed via batting it against a table. In the meantime, Kaito took the opportunity to finally open the envelope, not willing to wait anymore.

Fishing through the envelope produced a small round device, which upon being placed on the table immediately revealed itself to be a tiny projector showing the principal of UA himself.

"Hello, prospective student! As you may know, UA is very selective about who gets to attend, but we're happy to say that you are accepted into the Heroics Department!" At the word 'accepted', Aoko immediately moved to drag a stunned Kaito into a delighted hug before the hologram could even complete, before hurriedly breaking it off again.

"You did it, Kaito! You got in!" Aoko's excitement was met with practised confidence, in a bid to hide how nervous Kaito had been just a moment ago.

"Of course I did! After all, did you honestly expect me to fail?" Aoko frowned, but otherwise seemed to stay relatively happy for Kaito in spite of his comment.

"Look, I'll be cheering you on from Ekoda High, so don't get kicked out or something okay?" That caught Kaito's attention, the fact that Aoko was apparently going to Ekoda High after all. However, he wasn't able to comment on it before he was being pushed out the door, with Aoko insisting that they should go out and celebrate the success.

 **Masumi's POV**

"I'm in, Mama!" Masumi was practically vibrating with joy, eyes shining as the hologram message continued on with info about which class she was going to be in. Meanwhile, her mother was cracking a rare smile of her own in response, clearly happy despite her usual cold demeanour.

"Yes, you did. You'll be safe, won't you?" The smile faded, replaced by a more serious look that reminded Masumi of the time it took to convince her to let her apply.

"Yes, I'll be safe. No one's going to attack UA, not with all the heroes there, Mama." Still, Masumi understood more or less where her mother was coming from. With the mysterious death of her father and her elder brother Shuuichi apparently insisting on becoming a hero in a bid to resolve whatever happened to said father, along with the threat of being caught in a random villain attack in the streets, there was a risk of harm. Even so, Masumi was determined enough to go through with what she wanted anyways.

"Anyways, shouldn't we let Shuu-nii and Kichi-nii know the good news?" Without waiting for a response, Masumi whipped out her phone to send a message to her brothers announcing her success at getting into UA. It wouldn't be long before a response came in from Shuukichi, with a very overjoyed congratulations along with a warning that he was rushing over to talk in person. Shuuichi, however...

"...Shuu-nii's not answering. Maybe he's busy." To be fair, he didn't exactly communicate much, but there was a reasonable chance that he was just busy at the moment. Still excited, Masumi ended up getting up to try and pace the stress away, too wound up to do much else and not exactly eager to continue trying to convince her mother that she would be fine.

 **Ran's POV**

"I'm home!" Ran walked in the door, carrying a small handful of mail in with her as she looked around for her father. He didn't seem to be home at the moment, but Shinichi was, and he seemed to be staring rather intently at the mail in Ran's hand.

"Hey, Ran, that one's from UA. You should hurry up and open it." At the same time Shinichi walked up to indicate a specific envelope, ignoring Ran's annoyed look in the process.

"Shinichi, you know you shouldn't be using your Quirk like that. It's distinctive." Shinichi stiffened as he was called out, before settling into an all too familiar frustrated look that Ran had to sympathize with. It had been ten months since Shinichi's 'disappearance', and with no progress in catching his attackers or returning him to normal, his frustration was becoming increasingly apparent. Taking pity, Ran set the rest of the mail aside and sat down on the couch to open the one from UA.

"So, why was this one from UA? It was mixed in, and you couldn't see what was written on the envelope." As she tore the envelope open, Shinichi walked over to sit next to Ran and launched into an explanation involving traces of unusual fingerprints on the paper and the only one he knew of who could leave prints like that being the UA principal, and the knowledge that the letter had to be coming around that time. The opportunity to explain seemed to be improving his mood, at least.

"It's open..." Shinichi immediately fell silent, staring as Ran placed the little device from the envelope on the table where it immediately revealed its holographic message.

"Hello, prospective student! As you may know, UA is very selective about who gets to attend, but we're happy to say that you are accepted into the Heroics Department!..." The message was met with stunned silence for a moment before the two began trying to talk at once.

"I knew you could do it, Ran!"

"I really did it?" After a few more rounds of trying to talk at once, both Ran and Shinichi settled down enough to actually talk.

"I did it. I'll be able to stop villains from hurting more people, and maybe even help you out." At that Shinichi seemed to panic a bit, trying to convince Ran that he could resolve it himself to no effect. "Right, Mr. I-forgot-there-was-a-second-guy-and-got-myself-drugged-into-a-child. You can't do this on your own, I'm going to help you, and I'm not backing down. Got it?"

Shinichi nodded before quickly changing the subject away from the current topic. "Oh, apparently some roads had to be closed due to a hero-villain chase, so Mouri'll be late from pachinko." The mention of her father and pachinko earned an exasperated sigh from Ran, who immediately went to call Sonoko with the good news.

 **Meanwhile, elsewhere in Tokyo**

The truck skidded back and forth, trying to shake the pursuing Ingenium off their tail. Thankfully the road had been closed, meaning the Turbo Hero didn't have to weave through traffic to pursue the robbers. Bad news was, neither did the truck, meaning it was proceeding unimpeded and in disregard to any speed limits.

Glancing up at a flicker of movement on an overhead walkway, he realized that there was a familiar figure standing up there. Only the sight of a flaming ball gave Ingenium enough time to skid aside and out of range, throwing him off and further behind the truck. The ball itself struck pavement behind the truck, creating a small pit in the surface where it landed. Meanwhile both truck and pursuer would pass under the walkway, at which point Ingenium glanced back in time to see Endeavour preparing another, larger fireball to launch. This one sailed over both Ingenium's head and the truck, striking pavement and prompting the vehicle to skid its way onto a side road where the Turbo Hero couldn't follow without having to stop to make the turn.

And of course, by the time Ingenium had managed to make the turn the truck was gone, with no obvious clue where it went. Endeavor showed up some minutes later, cursing at having lost the truck. The two heroes exchanged a frustrated look before Ingenium pulled out his phone to post the truck's last known location to the Hero Network in hopes that someone else could stop it.

* * *

New Quirks in this chapter:

Reverse Geode: User creates a layer of quartz crystals on the surface of a held object. The more crystals are formed, the slower the spread. The crystals are also fragile and non valuable.

Known Users: Aoko Nakamori, Aoko's mother (Deceased)

Keen Eye: User notices details normally unperceivable to the human eye. Causes eye strain and possible eye damage if used too extensively.

Known Users: Shinichi Kudou, Yuusaku Kudou.


	5. too late

Tossing and turning in bed, Ran blinked her eyes open to stare at the nearby alarm clock, only to sigh as she realized it was one thirty in the morning. She was just rolling over to try and get some sleep when the bedroom door creaked open, revealing a tiny form just outside blinking with exhaustion.

"Shinichi? Are you awake, too?" There was no response outside of a nod as he let himself in, which was weird by itself. "Is this about Masami-san's suicide-"

"It feels wrong." Cut off, Ran could only listen in silence as Shinichi continued in a voice that was increasingly laced with barely suppressed frustration. "It feels wrong, the gun looked too clean apart from a few fingerprints around the trigger, and I couldn't say anything because Conan's not supposed to have Keen Eye, _Shinichi_ is. Conan's not supposed to have _any_ Quirk."

"...Oh." Ran didn't know what to say. It was bad enough when she thought it was a suicide, but to think that someone murdered Masami Hirota, and made it look near perfectly like a suicide, was far worse. "...Maybe someone on the police force will notice what you did, Shinichi. It _is_ a whole police force..."

"...Maybe." Shinichi didn't sound all that convinced, and given how much he used to help before his poisoning, Ran could understand. Being forced to the sidelines in situations he could have handled before couldn't be easy. Watching as Shinichi turned to leave again, Ran ended up having an even harder time trying to sleep than before.

* * *

Shiho barely kept her research boycott going a week before she ended up locked up for...well. It was no mystery what was awaiting her.

Death had always awaited those who dared to betray the organization.

But in this case, it wouldn't be at the hands of those she had been working for. No, Shiho was going to use what little control she had left to at least decide how she would die. But first she had to deny her employers the rights to her Quirk, just in case she somehow were to survive.

Slipping her hand into her labcoat pocket, she easily found the two objects she had secreted away on starting her boycott. A tiny red and white pill, and a tiny needle tipped bullet. Setting the pill aside, Shiho carefully held the bullet between her thumb and index finger, and quickly jabbed the needle tipped end into her arm. A staticky feeling spread through her body, fading rapidly but assuring her that the drug had done its job as she picked the pill up again. Now for the hard part.

Hesitating to finish the job, Shiho steeled herself with memories of what she'd done. Memories of being forced to work with what were clearly human blood samples, despite not receiving an explanation for where they came from. Memories of being told Akemi had died, with no explanation of what exactly happened. So many memories, none of them happy.

"I'm coming, Akemi..." Now ready, Shiho swallowed the pill.

And almost immediately curled into herself as the pain started. She was barely able to suppress her screams, aware that screaming would only draw attention. The effects of the pill seemed to drag out as she thrashed around, struggling to escape the sensations of burning skin and melting bones and unending pain. And yet, it would seemingly take an eternity for the torment to finally subside, relaced by sore joints and the feeling that something was _off_.

"How..." A look at her now oversized labcoat confirmed the truth. Shiho Miyano had somehow defied the odds, and was now nothing more than a little girl. Realizing that they couldn't be allowed to find her like this, Shiho shakily stood up and made her way to a garbage chute, wasting no time in sending herself feet first down the hole. She had to escape. She had to get away and find the one other person who might have survived. She had to find Shinichi Kudou.

* * *

If twenty percent of the population is Quirkless, then that's still a lot of people. That said, Akemi/Masami was Quirkless, Conan is pretending to be Quirkless, and Shiho made herself Quirkless.


End file.
